Suspension arm supporting means



United States Patent Frederiek F. Brunette Plymouth, Michigan 56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 72] inventor .11 "nu y mr qfl m 6 0m h h y n en u 0 .l eu f PMEHLBGB 57799 56 13555996 99999889 11111111 ll/l/l/l 02250660 .111 l 1 042 7850 78698230 J P fi v WAA. 63570406 50 00 547 JJ fl fl9 -J. 2222 3 m e n h In." a m m u 0 7 n 6m M 99 9 1 ma 9 hm r mw waalom w wmwm 6&NBPa 0. d& N .RM n wmmm a AFB-A 253 224. .l..l.l..rl

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Primary Examiner- Roy D. Frazier Assistant Examiner-Abraham Frankel [54] SUSPENSION ARM SUPPORTING MEANS Ammey Hauke, Gifford & Patalidis 11 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

g removable shelves which adapted to be received by 211/148, ABSTRACT: A display rack havin [52] US. Cl.......

ice/1 1 1 are supported by suspension arms 108/108, 109, l I l, 148 US. employing applicant's locking feature.

Patentd Nov. 3, 197

FIG. 2

INVENTOR FREDERICK E BRUNETTE ATTORNEYS 1 SUSPENSION ARM SUPPORTING MEANS BACKGROUND 'OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates toracks for displaying or storing merchandise and more particularly to suspension arm sup porting means for removably holding shelf members and the like in connection with the racks.

2. Description of thePrior Art One form of display rack capable of employing the supporting means disclosed by the present invention is shown in my US. Pat. No. 3,276,400, issued Oct. 4, 1966. In this patent individual square tubing support members are required for the telescopic receptionofeach shelf support arm member; and slidable plungers and cooperating holes are used to lock the arms within the supports. Applicant has invented an improved support means for his suspension arms that is simpler to manufacture, less costly to assemble and more reliable in operation while requiring less components. Whilethe arms supporting means of the above-mentioned patent proved successful, a need has existed for a shelf support that can be readily assembled and disassembled without requiring the employment of separate locking members that can become inoperative or damaged due to harsh and constant use. Also the manufacture of the display racks requires a design that reduces the number of parts to lower fabrication time and expense.

It is the broad purpose of the present invention to provide an improved arm supporting means having a minimum number of components economically assembled to form a highly reliable shelf support adapted for high production techniques.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to suspension arms mounted in pairs for support of display shelves on either side of a vertical post member formed of, square tubing of the general type used to form the support arms. A single piece bracket member is used in a unique manner to cooperate with the vertical post member to position the pair of arms both forwardly and rear- 1 wardly of the post. Each arm has an intermediate curved portion and a tangent end portion so designed that it cooperates with a slot formed by cooperating faces of the post and the adjacent flange of the bracket. The parts are related so that the tangent end portion of the arm may be readily inserted in the upper portion of the slot and moved downwardly therein a major portion of its length with a-minimum of frictional resistance and thereafter being engageably locked in position by the wedging action of the arm between the flange and post. The wedging or camming action occurs because of the dimensional relationship between the tangent end and intermediate curved portion of the arm in relation to the bracket together with the structural arrangement of applicant's design.

Accordingly, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide arm-supporting means utilizing a wedging action to lockingly support removable arm members to their supports while requiring a minimum effort to disassemble the arm members. Y

Another object of the present invention is to provide suspension arm-supporting means that utilizes a minimum of parts for providing a rigid supporting means yet allows for quick assembly and disassembly.

A further object of the Invention is the provision of a unitary bracket member operable in conjunction with a support member to lockingly retain a pair of suspension arms.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the annexed drawing, which illustrates a preferred embodiment, and wherein: I

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a removable shelf using the arm-supporting means of the present invention with portions of the display rack shown in phantom lines for purposes of clarity;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of the arm-supporting means taken along line 2-2 of FIG. I; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary vertit al cross-sectional view of the arm-supporting means taken generally along line 3-3 of FIG.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawing, there is shown in phantom line in FIG. 1 a pair of vertical end members 10 supported in parallel-spaced relation by spacer means generally indicated at 12. The details of the spacer means 12 form no part of the present invention and for examples of various kinds of spacer assemblies used with rack ends 10 reference may be had to the aforementioned US. Pat. No. 3,276,400. Vertical posts or uprights 16 are welded or otherwise secured to the end members 10 at their upper arch portions 18 and lower brace members 20. Each of the posts or uprights 16 is preferably formed of tubular stock having a square cross section. Carried by each of the posts 16 at desired spaced intervals are bracket members 22 to allow the placing of shelf members 14 at selected locations.

As shown in FIG. I, each display shelf 14 comprises spaced longitudinal wirc members 26 supporting spaced transverse wire members 24. The transverse members 24 are welded to the longitudinal members 26 which in turn are welded at each end to arm members, generally indicated at 28. Each arm member is preferably formed of square tubing of the type used for posts 16 while having a somewhat smaller cross section, and includes an intermediate curved portion 29 and a downwardly projecting tangent end portion 30 best seen in FIG. 3. The projecting tangent end 30 of each arm is placed within and supported by one of the slot portions 31 (FIG. 1) formed by the opposed pair of faces of bracket flange end post members.

As viewed in FIG. 2 each bracket member 22 has a connecting plate member 32 which is provided at its ends with flanges 34 to form a channel cross section bracket member. The plate portion 32 of the bracket 22 is secured to the post or upright 16 by suitable means such as by the pop rivets shown at 36. It will be noted in FIG. 2 that the plate member 32' is secured to the side face 35 of post 16 such that the flanges 34 are equally spaced from forward and rearward post faces 38 and 40, respectively.

In the present embodiment of the invention a pair of arms 28, having inclined shelf supports 41, are shown supported forwardly and rearwardly at the bracket member 22. As the supporting means for each arm member 28 is a mirror image of the other, only one will be described. In this respect it should be noted that while in the preferred form of the invention the single bracket member 22 is used to cooperatively support two arm members 28, it is obvious that a single arm member could be retained using a modified L cross section bracket while employing principles of applicant's locking means to be described.

Looking now at FIG. 3, the forward arm member 28 is shown retained by bracket member 22 by the cooperation with bracket flange 34 and the forward face 38 of post 16. The arm member 28 is in the lock position at FIG. 3, the tangent end 30, having a length indicated by dimension X, which extends from trace line 48 to the lower extremity 52 of the arm. The trace line 48 denotes the location of the point of tangency between the curved face 42, having the radius R, and the planar face portion 44. It will be noted that the tangent end 30 is positioned approximately equidistant from the vertical extremities of flange 34 whose overall height is indicated by dimension Y.

The flange 34 is spaced from the face 38 a distance sufficient to insure easy insertion of the tangent end 30 into the slot 31. Thus, the arm 28 may be easily mbved downwardly until the tangent point, indicated by line 43, moves past the upper edge of flange 34. Continued downward movement will cause the curved surface 42 to be wedgeably engaged by the flange 34 at area A while the lower end 52 of face 46 will be wedged into contact with face 38 of post 16 at area B.

It will be seen that by virtue of having the arm 28 in wedging contact only at areas A and B the members are retained in locked relation while allowing the arm to be easily removed by a slight upward pull on the arm. The fact that flange 34 is supported only at junction 53 (FIG. 2) permits a slight amount of flexibility between the components to thereby permit ease of movement of the arm into and out of its wedged position.

Thus by means of applicants unique supporting arrangement the single channel-shaped bracket member 22 is able to support a pair of curved arm members. The fact that the flanges 22 provide opposed open slots 31 for the reception of the respective arm members at each end of the shelf 14 also assists in the quick and convenient placement of the shelves. This results from the freedom of lateral movement of the shelf between the outer plates 32. By means of having the slots 31 in opposed faced relation, applicant is able to fabricate the shelves without a critically toleranced spacing problem between the arm members 28 of each individual shelf, as is required by applicants aforementioned patent which discloses a telescopic-type support means. The arms 28 are spaced to provide a minimum tolerance Z at each end of the shelf between plate members 32 and the adjacent side 29 of arm 28. In this way applicant has also assured that frictional contact will be avoided between the sides 29 and outer plates 32 to permit ease of assembly.

Another feature of the invention resides in positioning the brackets 22 so that the flanges 34 are in opposed relation. This allows the flexure of the flanges to occur whereby they will cooperate to prevent binding during the insertion of the tangent ends of the arms. The importance of this can be appreciated because of the necessity of the close tolerance that must be maintained between flange 34 and face 38 to achieve applicants wedge lock.

lt can be seen in FIG. 2 that arm 28 has a smaller square section than upright support 16. This allows for the clearance space 2 while maintaining the faces 30 and 33 in a substantially common plane. This together with the placement of flanges 34 in opposed relation gives the appearance of a telescopic-type connection while eliminating sharp corners or protruding members to prevent injury to store customers by accidental contact with the display racks. In this regard it will be noted that end portion 52 of the arm is positioned within the bracket slots 31.

This last-mentioned relationship is, of course, in addition to the primary purpose of having bracket 22 extend a distance Y that exceeds the tangent end length X a sufficient amount whereby when wedging contact is made at the upper portion of the flange at A, the contact area B, adjacent the tangent end 52, will be above the bottom edge 58 of the bracket to insure wedging engagement at area B.

While the shelf-supporting arm 41 is shown in an inclined position it will be obvious that other arrangements, wherein the arm is horizontally orientated as for example, could employ applicant's supporting means.

It should be understood, of course, that the foregoing disclosure relates to only a preferred embodiment of the invention and that numerous modifications or alterations may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim: 1. A rack for displaying or storing articles and the like comprising:

a. plurality of spaced upright members each having a rectangular cross section; b. spacer means for supporting and spacing the upright members; and c. a plurality of horizontally extending shelves and means attaching said shelves to said upright members, said last named means comprising:

1. channel shaped bracket members having flanges, said bracket members being mounted along said upright members in vertically spaced horizontal alignment;

2. the flanges of each of said bracket members forming a 4 pair of longitudinally extending slots in cooperation with a forward and rearward face, respectively, of said; upright member; and 1 support arm members integral with said shelves of; 5 rectangular cross section having an end portion and an,

intermediate curved portion and dimensioned to be slidably received within the slots such that the upper edge of each said bracket member flange wedgingly engages said curved portion and said cooperating upright. face wedgingly engages the end portion of said arm member.

2. The rack as defined in claim 1, and in which each of said bracket members is affixed to the outwardly directed side face of said upright members wherein the slots formed thereby are in opposed relation.

3. The rack as defined in claim 1, and in which the longitudinal dimension of said bracket members exceeds the tangent length of said arm members wherein the areas of wedging contact between the members are confined within the longitudinal dimension of said bracket members.

4. The rack as defined in claim 2, wherein each of said channel-shaped bracket members has a base plate connecting said flanges, the spacing between the base plates of horizontally aligned bracket members exceeding the distance between the outwardly directed faces of each pair of said support arm members a predetermined amount to provide ready mounting of said shelf.

5. The rack as defined in claim 1, wherein the end portion of each of said support arm members is square in cross section having a ratio of length to width not less than 3 to 1.

6. A rack for displaying or storing articles and the like comprising:

a plurality of spaced upright members each having at least two parallel planar faces connected to a third face;

at least a pair of shelves extending between said upright members and means for attaching said shelves to said upright members, said means comprising: pairs of bracket members having flanges and mounted to said third face of each of said upright members in horizontal alignment and such that said flanges are spaced from and parallel to the two upright member 1 planar faces to define pairs of elongated slots along each of said upright members; and each of said shelves including support arm members defining opposite elongated parallel outer end faces on said shelves, said support arm members each having an end portion being dimensioned to be slidably received within one of said slots whereby each slot is adapted to receive a support arm member so as to permit a pair of shelves to be mounted forwardly and rearwardly of said upright member by means of a single pair of bracket members. 7. The rack as defined in claim 6 wherein said upright mem- 5 5 bers and said support arm members have rectangular cross .sections and each of said bracket members has a U-shaped f cross section.

8. The rack as defined in claim 7 wherein each of said U- ishaped bracket members has a base and a pair of flanges, said 60 bracket members being secured to said third face of said -upright members by means of said base wherein said flanges are in a spaced relationship with said parallel planar faces of each of said uprightmembers to form said pair of slots.

9. The rack as defined in claim 8 wherein the distance ;between the outer end faces of each shelf, as defined by the support arm therefor, is less than the distance between the :bases of the bracket members defining the slots for receiving the support arms of the shelf, whereby a space is provided in :each slot between each outer end face and the base of the bracket.

10. The rack defined in claim 6 wherein each of said end a portions has a ratio of length to width of the order of 3 to 1.

11. The rack as defined in claim 6 wherein each of said sup- Jport arm members has an intermediate curved portion, said inltermediate curved portion being curved an amount so that its end portion is positioned at an acute angle.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent NO.3,S37596 D t d November 3, 1970 Frederick P. Brunette Inventor(s) It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 3, line 13, after "flanges" cancel "22" and insert 34 Signed and sealed this 23rd day of February 1971.

[SEAL] Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. WILLIAM E. SCHUYLER, JR. Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents FORM PO-IOSD (10-69) USCOMM-DC cove-Pea 

